The Fate of Rufus Shinra
by Litta
Summary: Things have been changed a little, but this is the true story about what really happened with Rufus Shinra, the way things should have gone.
1. Chapter 1

The president sat at his desk, comfortable in his chair, staring out the window. He watched as his security forced people away, those who had been trying to get in to see him. He saw his Turks, his beloved group of Turks, reeking havoc upon the weak people of the slums. He turned away from the window.

_Don't I have anything better to do than to watch the pain that I voluntarily allowed to come to those people down there? I could stop it with a simple word. All I'd have to do is tell the Turks to come back in. I could tell the security guards to be nicer to the people. But no, instead I sit up in my office watching from above, thinking about the different things I could do. I need to find a new hobby._

He turned back to his window. As time passed, the Turks eventually stopped tormenting their victims and reentered the building. He waited, and a few minutes later he heard someone coming up the stairs to speak with him.

"What is it Tseng?" he said while still facing the window, before the unknown person had a chance to speak.

"While the Turks were out getting information, we learned that a rebel band of outcasts, calling themselves AVALANCHE, are planning an attack on our reactor number one."

"And what are you here to ask?"

"I want to be put in charge of preparing our defense against this attack."

"As the head of the Turks, you automatically have that responsibility. So why are you asking me for it, unless that's not really what you're asking."

"As always, you already know what I want."

"You want me to make sure Reno doesn't take control like he did last time." Tseng nodded. "Very well. Send him to me and I'll speak with him." Tseng nodded again and left. Rufus only had to wait a few minutes before he heard Reno coming up the stairs.

"Tseng said you wanted to see me sir?"

"Yes. I'm telling you now that Tseng is in charge of our defense against the next attack, and if you interfere or disobey orders I'll make sure you never see the light of day again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Now go see what Tseng wants you to do." Reno left, leaving Rufus to return to his window watching. The security guards were standing around aimlessly, with no more people trying to get in they had no more entertainment.

_Pitiful. They are only entertained by the pain of others._

He sighed. He knew it was his own fault. It just seemed that he could never bring himself to care enough to do anything about it. After another ten minutes of boredom, he turned back to his computer. He looked through random files, checking up on some of Hojo's most recent experiments.

_There's nothing more to watch outside, and I've read over these files one hundred times each. All I can do is wait for this alleged AVALANCHE attack. And there's no telling when they plan on attacking._

Rufus got up from his desk and headed to the control room. He accessed the security cameras, but the only people currently moving were his own Turks. He checked the surrounding areas outside the building, checking for anything out of the ordinary. He was disappointed that none of his Turks had thought to watch the security cameras for the AVALANCHE group.

As he walked back to his office, he kept thinking about the coming attack. He wondered what kind of tactics they would use to try to destroy the reactor. Just when he reached his office, he felt the explosion below. He quickly looked out the window to see if he could discover anything. He saw the side of a part of his building explode, but no one had been there to be injured by it.

_No, wait. There is someone down there._

He watched in horror. There was a young woman down there. She had been walking by when the explosion occurred, and it had knocked her into the building a few yards away. Rufus quickly took one of the elevators down to the ground level. He ran across the street towards the young woman.

"Are you all right?" he asked her. She didn't answer. He saw that she had many cuts and bruises, but she also had a serious gash on the back of her left shoulder. He also couldn't help but notice her chestnut colored, waist-length hair. He picked her up and carried her back into the building. The minute he had her in one of the labs he ordered Hojo up there immediately.

"Tend to her wounds," he ordered Hojo. He then left and went back to his office. As he had expected, Tseng was there waiting for him.

"Is everything all right sir?" Tseng asked.

"Yes. What happened with the reactor?"

"AVALANCHE was able to get past our barriers unfortunately. They succeeded in destroying one of out reactors. The explosion they caused was big enough to blow out a small section of wall on the Sector 1 side of the building."

"Can we re-build the reactor?" He had to know the extent of the damage.

"I believe so, but it will take time."

"Do it." Tseng nodded and left. Rufus logged onto his computer and checked over the reactor files. He quickly calculated the cost to rebuild, and discovered the amount of time it would take to rebuild as well. Then he accessed the security cameras to see if AVALANCHE had left any clues. They had shut down the cameras that could get pictures of their faces, but there was another one they had missed. He brought up an image, enhanced it on his computer, and ran the search.

_Cloud Strife, is it?_

"Rufus?" Only one person out of all of his employees and contacts was permitted to call him by his first name.

"Yes Hojo?"

"The girl is awake. I thought you might want to explain to her what happened."

"Thank you." Rufus followed Hojo back to the lab. When he walked in, the young girl immediately looked at them. "How are you feeling?" Rufus asked her. Hojo left the room and shut the door.

"Confused," she said quietly.

"Can you remember anything that happened?" he asked her. She thought for a minute, thinking.

"I was walking past the reactor in Sector 1, when, it exploded. I was thrown into, something."

"You were thrown into a concrete building. I brought you here to begin healing your wounds."

"Where am I?" Rufus wasn't sure how she would handle hearing that she had been brought to the ShinRa building. So instead of telling her that, he decided to tell her half of the truth.

"You're in my business building."

"Thank you then."

"You're welcome. Where were you heading?"

"To the ShinRa building," she answered slowly.

"What for?" Before she could answer, Hojo walked back into the room.

"She really should rest Rufus," Hojo said.

"Of course." He nodded at her and left. Hojo did a few more things with the computers, but then also left. Once alone, she decided that her only option was to sleep, so she did. Rufus headed to his own room after leaving the lab. He received a report from Tseng about the attack and then sent the Turks on another mission.

_That's their fifth mission this week. That's more than they normally get. But this was an important mission. Why am I trying to justify my actions? I'm the President of ShinRa Company. They signed a contract to do what I tell them. If I need them to do something, they are required to do it. I need to stop thinking about this._

Rufus shut down his computer and left his office. He went into his room and got some sleep. When he woke up the next morning, he first went to the lab to see if the young woman was awake yet. She was just waking up when he walked in.

"Good morning," Rufus said. He closed the door behind him.

"Hi," she replied simply.

"Feeling any better?"

"A little."

"Good. Perhaps now that you're feeling somewhat better you'd like to take a walk?" She nodded, and began to get up. Rufus helper her stand, since she seemed slightly unsteady on her feet. He led her to the elevator and took it to another floor. Then he opened a door and led her into a room. "This is our greenhouse," he told her. "The plants are sometimes used in experiments by our scientist."

"What kind of experiments?"

"Just some tests to discover things like what happens when you combine two different plants together."

"Oh."

Rufus pointed out different plants, but soon realized he had to support her more and more. She was still recovering and needed to rest a little more. So he led her out of the greenhouse and back to the labs.

"You should rest a little longer. When you're fully healed I can show you around some more."

"Thank you again."

"It's my pleasure." He left her to rest and headed back to his office. On the way there, he told Hojo to check on her periodically. He also asked Hojo to try to find out her name, since had not done so yet. From there he went to his office to check on his Turks. The first one he was able to get a hold of was Tseng.

"How is the mission going?" Rufus asked.

"We ran into a few problems, but we're got them under control now," Tseng said. "Reno should be reporting to me in a few minutes to let me know how things went."

"Report to me when you know something new."

"Right away." Rufus hung up. He waited there for a few minutes, before the phone rang again.

"Yes?" Rufus said as he answered the phone.

"Reno let the specimen get away I'm afraid," Tseng told him. "He claims Cloud Strife helped her escape."

"I see. Tell Elena and Rude to return. You can come with them. Tell Reno not to return until he completes the job."

"Will do sir," Tseng answered. Then he hung up.


	2. Chapter 2

Rufus left his office and headed back down towards the lab. When he reached the door that led to the girl's room, he paused.

_What's wrong with me? I carry out my normal plans to cause people pain, yet I'm trying to spare this girl as much pain as possible. Why is she so important? I don't know who she is, or even what her name is. And what am I going to do when she's completely healed? Am I going to send her back onto the streets, where she came from? Or am I going to let her stay, try to employ her? Before I drive myself insane with unanswerable question, I should find out how she is doing. Maybe Hojo was able to discover her name._

Rufus opened the door and walked in. The girl lay resting on the table. Hojo was busy concluding some research on his computer.

"What are you doing?" Rufus asked.

"Running some scans on one of our, older, specimens," Hojo replied without letting his eyes leave the computer screen. "Have you come to check up on our guest?"

"Yes. How is she?"

"She's almost completely healed. Right after the last time you spoke with me, I came in here to talk to out guest. She was still awake, so I asked her a few simple questions before letter her rest." Rufus waited expectantly. "Her name is Kristania. She's twenty years old. After I learned her name, though, I just decided it would be easier to look up her information in our databases. She has no living relatives, her parents died when she was very young. She grew up with her sister, Jemyle."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Rufus asked.

"We brought her in a few years ago for testing. Unfortunately, she died during one of the tests."

"So her sister was killed here?"

"Correct."

"Does she know that?"

"I don't know." Rufus took a minute to think about what that could mean. "Do you need anything else?" Hojo asked.

"No." Rufus left the lab and headed back to his office. He was finishing up his lunch when Tseng arrived in his office. "Is Reno back?"

"Not yet," Tseng answered. "He was still trying to get the specimen the last time he checked in. He told me he was very close, he just had to get around Cloud Strife."

"I see. Thank you Tseng. You can go now." Rufus watched Tseng leave, and then turned around to look out the window. After a few minutes, he saw Reno bringing in the specimen. He assumed that Tseng would come up shortly to report Reno's return. To avoid the interruption, he called Tseng on his cell phone.

"Tseng here," said his voice.

"I saw Reno arrive, so just write up a report and hand it to me later," Rufus told him. "I'd prefer not to be disturbed at the moment."

"Yes sir." Tseng hung up. Rufus did likewise. He got up from his desk and headed back to the labs. He walked into Kristania's room. Hojo was still running things on the computers, but was not actually in the room at the moment.

"Hello," he said to Kristania, who was slowly walking around the room.

"Hi."

"Feeling better?"

"Much. What are these computers doing?"

"I don't know. Hojo would be the one to ask, since he runs all the computers and programs connected to the labs."

"Oh." She continued looking at some of the computer screens, but stopped when she came to the one nearest Rufus. "Why does this computer have information about me on it?" she asked. Rufus walked over to see what she was talking about.

"I asked Hojo earlier to find out your name, and he must have looked your name up in our databases to see what other information he could find out about you."

"You could have just asked me," Kristania told him.

"When I thought of it you were sleeping, and I wasn't going to wake you up of course."

"Oh." Rufus wasn't sure what he was going to say. He didn't even know what he wanted yet. "Got something on your mind?" she asked him.

"It's nothing. Are you hungry?"

"A little."

"Then let me get you something to eat." He led her out of the lab to his personal dining room. He let her eat her fill, and when she was finished, he led her up to his office.

"So this is where you work then?" she asked.

"Yes." Rufus sat down in his chair and gestured for Kristania to sit in a chair across from him. She did.

"What is your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"My name is Rufus."

"And what exactly do you do here?"

"I'm the head of this company. My father owned it and when he died, I took over in his place."

"What company is this?" Rufus had been hoping to avoid this subject. He wasn't sure if she knew her sister had died here, and didn't want to discover it by finding out she did and that she hated him.

"Why don't we discuss something a little more interesting than my work?" he suggested, in answer to her question. "What do you do for a living?"

"I don't actually have a job. My sister used to work to earn money for food, but she died a few years ago and I've never been able to find a job myself."

"How did she die?"

"She was brought to ShinRa, and I never saw her again. It was just recently that I found out she died from some experiment a scientist tried to perform with her."

"You told me earlier that you had been heading to ShinRa prior to the explosion. Why would you be going there if that's where your sister died?"

"I want to speak to President Shinra personally. I want him to know what he put me through. I want to tell him what he's put almost everyone that lives in the sectors through. He doesn't care about anyone there, or he would do something to change things. But I'm talking up a storm, and you probably don't want to hear all my complaints."

"It's fine. It's nice to hear another person's opinions, about the sectors and life in them."

"Don't get out much?" she asked.

"Not as much as I should." A short moment of silence followed his sentence, but was broken when his phone rang. "Excuse me a minute. Yes? You know what to do." He hung up the phone with a loud click.

"Business call?" she asked. He nodded.

"One of our shipments has gone missing."

"What kind of shipment?"

"Nothing overly important." Rufus wasn't going to tell her what the shipment was, not when it would be a dead giveaway that he was the president of ShinRa. He watched as she seemed to be thinking things over in her head.

"What did you say your name was again?"

"Rufus," he answered calmly.

"Yes, but what's your last name?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm just curious." Rufus knew she was beginning to wonder who he was, and was becoming apprehensive with every minute that passed. He looked into her green eyes, and saw them sparkling with suspicion. "And what exactly does your company do?" she asked.

"It helps run some of the things for Midgar," he answered evasively.

"What kinds of things?" she persisted.

"Why are you asking all these questions?"

"I just thought I would find out who cared for my wounds, and what kind of work he does. It seems though that you are unwilling to give up very much information about yourself."

"I just chose to be careful about how much I reveal about myself."

"Yet you have no problem looking up my information to find out all you can about me, without bothering to ask me."

"I told you, you were resting."

"But you couldn't wait? What is the name of your company?"

"Is that really important?"

"Just answer me this: do you work for ShinRa?" She let the question hang while he considered his answer.

"In a way, yes."

"So you would know the president?"

"Not very well, it seems sometimes."

"I'm in the ShinRa building, aren't I?"

"Yes, you are."

"Then, you're really President Shinra, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"You liar!"

"I didn't lie to you," Rufus said calmly, not sure where this conversation was heading.

"You never told me that you were Rufus Shinra, or that you owned the ShinRa Company. You- YOU MURDERED MY SISTER!"

"I had no control over that situation. That was done by Hojo."

"You mean the same man that killed my sister was the one that healed my wounds?" Rufus nodded his head. He thought it best to let her finish her tirade before speaking again. "How dare he even speak to me after what he did! And you! You talked to me politely and pretended to be some nice person while all the time you knew about me and what you did to my sister! YOU ARE DISGUSTING!" She was standing up again, and was looking at him as though she wanted to strangle him.

"Finished?" he asked politely.

"If you're asking to find out if it's safe for you to speak, then no. I don't care what you have to say. Nothing you will say can take away the pain you caused me, and I don't want to hear one more word from your mouth. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to leave and go back to my home in the slums you like to call sectors." Before he could call her back, she had turned around and left his office.

_That is not at all how I imagined that going. I was hoping to keep her from finding out that I was Rufus Shinra a little longer, but I hadn't counted on her figuring it out by herself. She won't come back if I ask her, and even if I force her back she won't talk to me. She might yell at me a little more, but who's to say I don't deserve to be yelled at. Maybe I am at fault for having her sister killed. I had hoped to convince her to stay here a little longer; at least long enough for me to find a way to tell her that wouldn't cause her to go wild like that. Perhaps, though, all I deserve in life now is to be yelled at. But I'm not going to let that stop me from continuing to run my company. I may not ever find another person like Kristania, but I refuse to let that hinder my progress with my company._

Rufus stood up and walked down to Hojo's lab. He found the lab empty, and went to find where his scientist had run off too. He found his Turks working out, but continued to look for Hojo. After a half hour he returned to his office, intent on discovering Hojo's whereabouts.

But he never got the chance. Just as he was reaching for the phone, he felt a tremor run through the building. He stood up with plans to find the source of the disturbance, but was knocked backwards when an explosion burst through his office. He flew backwards through the window behind his desk, the window he had stared through so many times before. His last thought before he hit the pavement 70 stories below was: _I'll always regret not telling her the truth earlier. Then things might have turned out differently._


End file.
